Meeting the Continuing Education Requirements of FARM Program Version 4.0

By Lindsay Ferlito

Version 4.0 of the National Dairy FARM Program is now in effect from January 1, 2020, to December 31, 2022. One of the changes to this version is the requirement of training and continuing education for employees as well as family member employees and owners. Version 4.0 requires continuing education in animal care and handling for those with animal care responsibilities, and job-specific training for the following topics if they apply:

• Stockmanship
• Pre-weaned calf care
• Non-ambulatory animals
• Euthanasia
• Determining if animals are fit to transport

If this requirement is not met for non-family member employees, it will trigger a Mandatory Corrective Action Plan (must be corrected in less than 9 months); and if it is not met for family employees and owners, it will trigger a Continuous Improvement Plan (must be improved upon within 3 years). While this new standard includes more paperwork, chances are you and your employees are already meeting the continuing education requirements; you just need to document it. Continuing education can be achieved in many ways, and most don't require you or your employees to leave the farm. Below is a list of some examples of potential training and continuing education opportunities:

• Working with industry specialists on-farm (veterinarian, Quality Milk Production Services, Cornell Cooperative Extension, etc…)
• Dairy industry meetings
• Job shadowing with experienced employees and management
• Formal education (degree programs)
• Reading articles (CCE newsletters, Hoard's Dairyman, Progressive Dairy, etc…)
• Watching webinars and training videos
• National Dairy FARM Program training videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3N-BiUEYldTTFtFhTQdEQg
• Merck Dairy Care 365: https://www.merck-animal-health-usa.com/dairy-care-365
• Cornell PRO-DAIRY webinars: https://prodairy.cals.cornell.edu/webinars/
• Participating in the New York State Cattle Health Assurance Program (NYSCHAP)

The FARM Program provides a template to help you record training and continuing education for each person and it can be found at https://nationaldairyfarm.com/producer-resources/resource-library/. For help understanding the updates to FARM 4.0, for paperwork review, or a barn walk through, contact Regional Dairy Specialist Lindsay Ferlito (lc636@cornell.edu, 607-592-0290) or Alycia Drwencke (amd453@cornell.edu, 517-416-0386).